Posts Tagged ‘Wildlife Art’
Robert Kuhn, Flat Out, 1985. Acrylic on Board. 14 x 18 inches. JKM Collection®, National Museum of Wildlife Art.
Talk about a party! Here in Jackson, we’re proud to know our cultural treasure, the National Museum of Wildlife Art (NMWA), is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.
“From a private collector’s dream and a rented Jackson Hole storefront to a landmark building, national museum designation, and more than 5,000 artworks boasting familiar names from Audubon to Warhol, the National Museum of Wildlife Art has come a long way in 25 years,” says the museum. “In addition to its quarter-century anniversary, 2012 also marks the fall completion of the museum’s new Walter Hood-designed Sculpture Trail and the spearheading of a national exhibition providing a visual record of the American West as seen through the eyes of National Geographic’s legendary photographers opening in October.”
The museum’s collection began inauspiciously in 1962 with a small painting titled “Favorite Panfish” by Les Kouba given to Bill Kerr by his wife, Joffa. Two years later the couple bought a Carl Rungius piece, “Wanderers Above Timberline” on layaway, and by 1987 they had amassed one of the finest collections of wildlife and sporting art in the country. Together with several others, on May 17, 1987, they opened the then “Wildlife of the American West Art Museum” in a 5,000-square-foot space on Jackson’s Town Square.
Trio Fine Art is transitioning, evolving.
September Vhay, an original founder of Trio Fine Art, has announced she will be leaving that gallery and joining Jackson’s Altamira Fine Art, effective May 3, 2012. At that time, Trio Fine Art will welcome Jackson-based painter Bill Sawczuk as that gallery’s new partner.
Focusing on painting while simultaneously running a gallery is more than a full time job, and after six successful years at Trio, Vhay says she “has come to a place in her life where she feels that her time is best spent painting.”
“Running Trio Fine Art has been an incredibly rewarding experience in regards to having the opportunity to work with, and create art alongside, the talent of Kathryn Turner, Molly Hirschfield, Lee Riddell, and Jennifer Hoffman,” says Vhay, who is known for her distinct renderings of horses and wildlife. “Trio also provided the unique experience for an artist to connect with collectors and witness the public enjoying the work first hand. Artists become attached to their paintings, and there is a certain solace in knowing where they go. I am proud of what the
gallery has become and would like to extend a huge amount of gratitude to my amazing business partners, collectors, family and friends for their unwavering support. Neither Trio Fine Art nor my career would be where they are without it.”
Happy Equinox!
Watercolorist Kay Stratman, who describes her work as “Asian influenced,” has posted new work on her newly revamped website. In the letter she sent me, Stratman featured one of her new paintings, Monday Morning Breakfast Group, depicting yellow headed and red winged blackbirds gathered for conversation. Perched on some cattails and set against a liquid blue-green background, these are animated, upbeat birds. It must be Spring; as I write this a flash mob of rosy finches is filling the air with chatter and clamoring around in the trees, while several robins look on, keeping their distance.
“The title came first, before the image, inspired by my husband Paul’s Monday morning breakfast group,” says Stratman. “I think it is lots of fun and hope you do too. [This painting] appears a bit more detailed than many of my looser, more spontaneous paintings. Actually the details are only in the beaks, eyes and feet. The rest is very loosely handled with watery color flowing and blending in the background.”
The artist also plans to teach some art classes later this spring; both involve watercolor technique and one incorporates encaustic wax. Classes take place at the Art Association this May and early June, and to find out more, you should visit the Art Associaton’s website –www.artassociation.org–or call 307.733.6379. Stratman will also take part in the National Museum of Wildlife Art’s June 16th Annual Quickdraw event.
Stratman is also represented by Horizon Fine Art, 30 King Street, in Jackson, Wyoming. Her work is part of a group show there, taking place the week of June 16th. www.horizonfineartgallery.com. Stratman’s website: www.kaystratman.com.
A recent Wall Street Journal article tells the story of an artful marketing ploy in Aspen, Colorado. The Aspen Art Museum has arranged for a selection of artist Mark Grotjahn’s art work to be printed on ski lift tickets. It’s part of the museum’s initiative to “bring art to unlikely places,” and coincides with Grotjahn’s new show at the museum.
This image of Grotjahn’s ‘Untitled (Green Over Yellow Mask M18.a),’ depicts work similar to what will be printed on the Aspen lift tickets.
Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson, CEO and director at the Aspen Art Museum, is quoted as saying that “there were few guidelines for the project, other than to give the artist the size of the ticket and ask him to include the words “Aspen Snowmass.” The museum began putting art on lift tickets in 2005, featuring work by contemporary artists such as Peter Doig, Karen Kilimnik and Jim Hodges—the latter seeming to wink at the tony ski town by creating a lift ticket in multicolored block letters that read: “Give more than you take.”
Grotjahn, who is represented by the prestigious Gagosian Gallery, gets his art printed on 30,000 lift tickets, skis for free and the Aspen Art Museum gains a brilliant marketing vehicle.
In neighboring Sublette County, the town of Pinedale has big plans for 2012. According to a recent edition of the Sublette Examiner, “Main Street Pinedale”—a group of Pinedale citizens working to promote its downtown by “capitalizing on its uniqueness and by using historic preservation to generate economic and entrepreneurial growth”— will host a series of conferences that will work to raise Sublette’s cultural profile.
Events surrounding the conferences include “CLICK! A Weekend for Wyoming Visual Artists.” The Sublette Examiner writes:
“The name “CLICK!” suggests that thing that happens when you reconnect with colleagues and get inspired by new ideas, which occurs continually when Wyoming artists congregate,” said Sue Sommers, a local artist who helped organize the event, and is hoping to expand on the visibility and interconnectedness of Wyoming’s art community with those near and far – something she also tackled recently with the Pipeline Art Project….Like Pipeline, CLICK! is working alongside the Wyoming Arts Council (WAC) [sharing] a database of Wyoming artists and helps plan and partially fund the project.”
CLICK! takes place March 30 – April 1, 2012 at the Sublette County Libray, Pinedale. More registration info will be available soon. To read the Examiner’s full article, “click” here.
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In case you live in a cave–and the only peeps I know doin’ that are Bears 399 & 610–you know wildlife painter Amy Ringholz is Jackson’s 2012 Fall Arts Festival (FAF) poster artist. At 34, Ringholz is the youngest FAF artist to date.
Her winning painting, “Dreamers Don’t Sleep,” a 72 x 60″ ink and oil on canvas, will be showcased in the National Museum of Wildlife Art’s lobby January 22 – March 23, 2012. A wonderous portrait of the region’s wildlife, its magnificent Teton Range, a sparkling night sky, the painting also includes 25 painted flowers, to in honor of NMWA’s 25th anniversary. The painting is set to be unveiled at the museum Sunday, January 22, at 3:00 pm
Inspired by Fritz Scholder and Egon Schiele, Ringholz is a contemporary painter—the first contemporary FAF artist in over a decade. As this year’s Festival artist, she joins some of the West’s most notable working artists: Russell Chatham, Bill Schenck, Donna Howell-Sickles and 2011′s Dwayne Harty.
Locally, Ringholz is represented by Altamira Fine Art. Her work has been exhibited at NMWA, the Rockwell Museum of Western Art and Desert Caballeros Museum. She’s been featured in Southwest Art, Western Art & Architecture, and Western Art Collector magazines.
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Altamira Fine Art also represents 2009′s Fall Arts Festival poster artist R. Tom Gilleon. Altamira has confirmed that prices for Gilleon’s works will “increase significantly” as of May 1, 2012.
Gilleon has a major museum exhibition January 28 – May 27, 2012, at the Booth Western Art Museum. He is planning a one man show at Altamira in July. For more information, contact Altamira at 307.739.4700. www.altamiraart.com
